Dangerous Expectations

For what it's worth...

I saw A Dangerous Method last night and enjoyed it. With the New York Film Festival press events in swing (the festival proper starts on the 30th) and other screenings happening to the side we've arrived at our favorite time of year... Prestige Picture let out of the gate! As we speak, Michael and Kurt are watching Lars von Trier's Melancholia (which I've already seen and found fascinating and difficult to let settle) so you'll be hearing about these two movies shortly and later on when they open, too. Fall season is best because even when the movies aren't perfect they offer plenty to talk (and argue) about.

This adaptation of The Talking Cure (a phrase used in the movie unlike its new title) won't hit until November so my proper review will wait but I wanted to note straightaway that it wasn't quite what I was expecting -- almost stately, subtle and one might even say uptight to the point of refusing catharsis. Keira Knightley handles her difficult role well and without vanity, jutting her jaw out grotesquely and contorting her body to the point that it's even more alien and angular than one might have ever found it before. It's as if she's never read any of the critiques of her beauty. (I would like to note that I don't take kindly to the common hateful screeds about the actual looks of actors that are so popular on the web but this is rather like Sarah Jessica Parker -- who I personally love to look at -- agreeing to co-star in a picture entirely about horses.)

Freud (Viggo) and Jung (Fassy)Loved Viggo as Freud but was quite surprised to have difficulty with Michael Fassbender for the first time. I'm guessing that repression is, like depression, difficult to act in a mesmerizing way. For what it's worth my favorite male portrait of stifling repression is probably Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day who I would have handed the Oscar to in 1993. I am not overly fond of Hopkins so maybe I just have issues with male repression onscreen? A point of comparison: I was similarly unwowed by Daniel Day-Lewis when he made The Age of Innocence which is the picture my mind kept drifting towards.

As to Oscar speculation: I suspect that if there is Oscar play then The Age of Innocence is a far better comparison than Remains of the Day. But I suppose it all depends on whether AMPAS is in a repressed well appointed 90s period piece mood (they've kind of moved away from that lately, right?) and how the competition holds up when all the game pieces are on the board. 

Say What Gangsta?

Amuse us. Add a caption or dialogue to this photo in the comments. It's Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone on the set of the crime drama The Gangster Squad (2013) which takes place in the Los Angeles of 1949.

I'll repost later with the winning comment.

Norma's Jewels and Other Shiny Film Objects

FourFour on Andrew Haigh's Weekend, one of this year's must-sees. I'll have an interview about this one up tomorrow. It opens in extremely limited release (for now) on Friday.
Gold Derby wonders if Brad Pitt has two Oscar nominations in him this year.
Moving Image Archive Someone stole Norma Shearer's jewels! OMG there are a ton of 30s stars in this short film: Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Irene Dunne, Loretta Young, Laurel and Hardy and the list goes on and on.... Fun! with terrible jokes !! 

The First Lady of MGM in "The Stolen Jools" (1931)

Nicks Flick Picks chooses his favorite Best Actors and Actresses thus far this year. Strong choices but even stronger twitter length writeups; I don't know how he does it.
The Self Styled Siren has some words on NYFF films and a few interesting one in extremely measured defense of I Don't Know How She Does It? but I love this prickly bit on the casting...

...offers nothing to much to look at except Christina Hendricks and Pierce Brosnan (who are wasted with prodigal carelessness)

Just Jared first pics from the set of Steven Soderbergh / Channing Tatum stripper drama Magic Mike. For some reason I never believed this movie would actually happen (just like I didn't believe The Avengers would happen) but they're both always snapped on set now so... what do I know?
Monkey See on why you should all be watching the sitcom Raising Hope 
L Magazine Dan Callahan (always worth a read) on the worlds of Vincente Minnelli, one of TFE's favorite directors!
Mission Hot Mama uses Michelle Pfeiffer to illustrate makeup tips to help you look younger. (Another thing that helps people look younger is using photos from a few years ago like that one. I kid. I kid. She's amazing at 53. Now, if only she'd get out more.) 
Awards Daily You may have been surprised as I was to learn last year that the majority of visual effects artists in Hollywood aren't unionized like so many other craftsmen. They don't have great working conditions and things have been getting worse. Even though most of the top grossing films are visual effects driven they aren't paid all that highly (relatively speaking) either. Here's the press release of a Bill of Rights from the Visual Effects Society. 

They're Coming To Get You, Pedro

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JA from MNPP here, wondering who else is ready for Fall? I was just in the drug-store and they've got all the Halloween candy out - mmm Reese's Peanut Butter Pumpkins! - and besides making me momentarily panic over not having figured out a costume yet (any suggestions?) it's got me more than ready for the Scary Movie Season. I know the horror genre's not Nat's usual cuppa but tis the season, ya know? I figured we could take a look at the horror movies coming out over the next few weeks, liven the spirits if you will, mwah ah ah.

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September 30th Dream House - The movie that introduced future marrieds Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, this is Jim Sheridan's remake of a recent Hong Kong chiller about a family moving into a haunted house (has that story ever been told before) that has all kinds of secrets in its hair. The original is supposedly well worth seeking out (I haven't seen it yet), but if you've seen this here remake's trailer don't you feel as if they gave all of the game away?

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Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - This horror-comedy has been playing On Demand for several weeks already but it gets a limited release in theaters this week. It does for redneck horror (think Deliverance or The Hills Have Eyes) what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies, or at least tries to. Alan Tudyk, always welcome, and Tyler Labine star as a pair of hillbillies with heart who get mistaken for slash-crazed psychopaths by a bunch of dumb college kids, with gory results. It's fun, stupid stuff.

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October 14th The Skin I Live In - This is one Nat's actually covered here already, although with trepidation - Pedro Almodovar forced his hand! Just how horror-y the film is we're not quite sure yet (those of you in countries where it's already been released please share in the comments) but the story it's based on is apparently fairly horrifying, with the insane plastic surgeon kidnapper angle.

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The Thing - This is one of those "Is it a prequel or is it a remake?" line-blurrers that're so popular these days - since it's focusing in on the group of doomed scientists that kick off John Carpenter's classic 1982 film it is technically a prequel, but the trailer for the film is laid out in such a way to make it seem an exact copy, only with shoddy CG effects instead of the best practical horror special effects ever put on film in the earlier version. No, not the Howard Hawks one, the other one. This here updated version has got a good cast - Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead leading a pack of Swedes - and the director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. was thisclose to being given the Alien prequel/sequel/whatever thing that Ridley Scott's currently making before Ridley grabbed the reins of it himself.

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Texas Killing Fields - Had enough Jessica Chastain yet? This thriller hopes not, since it stars her and her Debt co-star Sam Worthington as detectives on the trail of a serial killer who apparently decide to use Chloe Moretz as bait. Not being a fan of Moretz's there are a lot of ways I could take this from here, but I'm just gonna move right along...

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October 21st Paranormal Activity 3 - If the second film in this series didn't kill any goodwill you might have had for it (hell I know plenty of people whose goodwill was killed by the first film), then here be more of the same, only this time vintage! We swoop back to the golden age of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and crack cocaine, 1988, to see what horrors happened to the little girls who grew up to be eventual screaming sisters Katie and Kristi. This time directed by the dudes who made the divisive whatumentary Catfish!

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And then there's what I like to call the Goodtime Indie Cult Power-Pack (I've never called it that before) - Martha Marcy May Marlene and Kevin Smith's Red State, which are both out in limited release on this day, and both apparently have to do with cults, and I imagine they amount to very different beasts in the end. MMMM's been getting festival buzz for awhile now, with special attention paid to other-Olsen Elizabeth as a girl who escapes from the sinister influence of the always fascinating John Hawkes. Red State got some buzz when Kevin Smith made a spectacle of it at Sundance and then toured it around the country for a couple of months, but reactions have been mainly negative - it's been playing On Demand with little fanfare for weeks. I say the edge goes to Martha in this battle.

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I have to say, save the artier fare of Almodovar and Martha Marcy May Marlene, there's not a whole lot psyching me up for All Hallows in this lot. Where's the good ol' fashioned thrills and chills? There's not even a horror movie opening on Halloween weekend, for goodness (badness?) sake. I guess I'll just end up cooped up at home watching Christopher Lee chase bosomy virgins around, again. Well there are worse fates!

Spielberg Buried In Gold

Remember a couple of weeks ago when we noted how crowded the Lifetime Achievement field is getting already for 2011? Well, add another huge name to the list:  Steven Spielberg, who already has three Oscars, a Thalberg, 3 Golden Globes and a Cecil B DeMille, 4 Bafta honors of varying sorts, 2 NBR honors, an honorary Cesar, 11 Emmys of different types, 3 DGAs and a lifetime achievement, at least 1 award from every critics organization, and dozens upon dozens of other prizes will be adding to his trophy collection in January. He will be honored by the Producers Guild of America with the David O. Selznick award on Saturday January 21st, 2012 three days before the Oscar nominations are announced. (Just in case War Horse isn't Oscar worthy?)

This will be the 8th time Spielberg has been feted by the PGA. He's won 4 times competively and received 3 additional special honors from that guild. If you melt down all his statues to form one big one how big would it be? Bigger than a mechanical shark named Bruce that's for sure! Maybe even bigger than a T-Rex?

In other lifetime achievement style honors...
We forgot to mention that Glenn Close's first tribute of 2011 (we're betting more will follow) happened over Emmy weekend at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

She looks happy.

Little known fact: All gold plated statues contain gooey centers filled with endorphin rushes, chocolate, and melatonin.